GM-o-Meter polling in London
The results of the 'GM Nation?' debate show the essential rejection of GM. The government launched the 'GM Nation?' exercise amid allegations that Downing Street was ignoring huge public disquiet over the proposed genetic modification of food and crops. Over 37,000 people took part, with 86 percent of people stating an outright rejection of growing GM crops in the UK.
We did some polling of our own, and submitted our results to the GM Public Debate committee. Again there was an overwhelming rejection of GM.
The last major report on GM this year, the results of farm scale trials of GM crops, were published on 16 October. The trials only examined the effect of weedkillers on wildlife. The key issues of cross-pollination, contamination of the global food chain, gene transfer and effects on human health remain unexplored and will not be looked at by these trials.
A final commercialisation decision will be made in 2004, after the results of the Farm Scale Evaluations have been published.
